Wednesday, January 19, 2011

From the Comptroller: “Annual Financial Report – Robertson County, Tennessee”

Many of you may have seen this press release, but I wanted to pass this along for your consideration.
The State Comptroller provided the results of their audit. You can find those results here.
Here is recommendation I find most intriguing:

AN AUDIT COMMITTEE HAS NOT BEEN ESTABLISHED

Robertson County does not have an Audit Committee. Sound business practices dictate that establishing an Audit Committee would significantly improve management oversight and accountability. The absence of an Audit Committee has been a management decision by the County Commission. The Division of County Audit strongly believes that an Audit Committee is a best practice that should be adopted to assist the County Commission by providing independent and objective reviews of the financial reporting process, internal controls, the audit function, and being responsible for monitoring management's plans to address various risks. (page 149).

Again, as I have said, I know there is not a "magic bullet" for the County's financial woes, yet, we can entertain ideas that we have not done before to try to solve problems that we continue to see.